[rokhayakebe]

I suspect the reason many think they prefer apps is the one-click launch and the automated bookmark created on your screen.

If a mobile browser behaved like an appstore (Search for website, See results, Click to Install, i.e. bookmark), you would have the same behavior, downloads, and most people would not be able to tell whether they are using an app, web app, or website.

[thegeomaster]

Firefox OS has something like this. On Firefox Marketplace, you can submit a mobile website that serves a small manifest.json file and it will be indistinguishable from a native app. I've been praising this innovative approach so many times on HN, but I have to do it again---it elegantly solves a lot of the problems we're having with native apps, and it all mostly works and integrates fine with the OS (the idea could use some polishing but is good as a proof-of-concept). It's a shame that the OS itself never really took off.

[lewisl9029]

This is exactly what the Hosted Web App and Web App Manifest Specs are meant to address:

http://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/

Unfortunately, the two largest mobile platforms (iOS and Android) don't have native support for these specs yet. And I'm not sure if they ever will properly support them since they'd probably prefer to keep the free developer lock-in they get with their native app platforms.

In the mean time though, you can use projects like Manifold JS to create Cordova-based polyfills for those platforms:

http://manifoldjs.com/

[sehr]

I don't use android, but I remember hearing about it trying to blur the lines between apps & browser tabs. They might be more amenable to the idea of browser apps considering web advertising is their cash cow too IIRC

[calebegg]

Chrome for Android has a feature where if you visit the same site a few times in a two week period (or some sort of heuristic like that), the site can have it prompt you to add it to your homescreen:

http://updates.html5rocks.com/2015/03/increasing-engagement-...